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Just Cool Cars: Rita Hayworth's Ghia was a gift of love

LOS ANGELES -- Rita Hayworth knew how to pick 'em -- whether it was men or cars. The movie star and '40s pinup was awarded a car that matched her own beauty, a Cadillac with a body by Italy's Ghia. The gift

For Valentine's Day, we had to return to a car that exemplified love -- a gift from a prince to a famous movie star. The relationship and marriage -- well, it didn't work out. But the car lives on at the now-beautiful Petersen Automotive Museum. Here's the report we presented last year:

LOS ANGELES — Rita Hayworth knew how to pick 'em — whether it was men or cars.

The movie star and '40s pinup was given a car that matched her own beauty, a Cadillac with a body by Italy's Ghia. The gift reportedly came from her husband, one of the world's wealthiest men in the early 1950s, Prince Aly Khan, the museum says.

The car, one of only two made, is now part of the collection at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles, which is closed while being renovated.

The Ghia Cadillac "embodies everything that's beautiful about Italian design," says Petersen's curator, Leslie Kendall. The Italian-designed body on the American chassis was the "perfect marriage of American practicality and European flair."

Instead of the puffy body and tailfins of the 1953 Cadillac, Ghia gave the car pure elegance — simple curves, a restrained grille and far less chrome.

As beautiful as the car turned out, the marriage didn't go well: Hayworth and Khan divorced.